Pages

8.10.2011

General John Allen, the top US/NATO commander in the region made the claim during a briefing on the crash that killed 30 US service-members, including more than 20 elite Navy SEALs as well as another eight Afghan fighters allied with them. The alleged downing of the Chinook helicopter is the single most deadly attack of the war.

Allen defended the decision to send in the elite team, saying it was deemed necessary at the time to go after Taliban “elements that were escaping” from an ongoing operation to target an important Taliban leader.

“We committed a force to contain that element from getting out. And, of course, in the process of that, the aircraft was struck by an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] and crashed,” Allen told Pentagon reporters via video-conference from Kabul.

Allen said a subsequent air strike around midnight on Aug. 8 killed other Taliban insurgents believed to be behind the attack — an assertion the Taliban immediately challenged.

I'll bet they did. This whole saga sounds like a bunch of bullshit right from the start. A supposed raid killing that world's number one terrorist, allegedly. Then members of the same team who may or may not have come back alive from that raid, are killed in the deadliest attack of the war. Maybe the general public is buying all this crap, but some of us are not.

Let's forget about conspiracy theories for a moment here now too. Let's just apply a little common sense. In one raid, SEALs swoop in in a super-secret state-of-the-art stealth helicopter. In the next, members of the very same unit mind you, are lumbering in using an outdated, unstable platform known to have a history of wrecks and problems. Even if they used such a unit, would they really pack that many of the word's premiere warriors all into this one “basket” risking the very thing that is alleged to have happened? Is that the best we have, really?

Speaking of best of the best here too. Since when do Navy SEAL's play Monday-morning quarterback for the Army Rangers? These guys, both SEALs and Rangers are elite operators. They are not grunts who you call on for backup when your surgical mission goes FUBAR. That is simply not how these elements are utilized, nor should they be.

Which is of course, why NATO is now alleging that these insurgents were killed in an airstrike. Because that is what would have actually been done in the first place. No SEAL's would have been called in. If they wanted to “go after elements that were escaping,” the could have called in air-support, like Apache's, or this bad motherfucker...